Carriers concerned about rising prices for iPhones and other devices and gear from China got good news early Monday as the Trump administration struck a preliminary agreement to temporarily slash a proposed tariff on Chinese imports from 145% to 30%. “We have reached an agreement on a 90-day pause and substantially moved down the tariff levels -- both sides, on the reciprocal tariffs, will move their tariffs down 115%,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The actions of independent regulatory commissions, including the FCC, are now being reviewed by the White House via OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and its procedures. Former OIRA leaders and other observers said in interviews that the new procedures may not result in substantial revisions of rulemakings by agencies answering directly to President Donald Trump, but they could slow adoption and implementation. In February, Trump ordered the commissions to submit proposed regulatory actions to OIRA before they appear in the Federal Register (see 2502180069). That took effect April 21, according to interim OMB guidance last month.

House Commerce Committee Republicans found some success Monday in selling their Sunday night budget reconciliation proposal -- which would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through FY 2034 and tee up 600 MHz of bandwidth -- as effectively balancing the interests of major communications sector and military stakeholders. But lobbyists cautioned that the measure still faces an uncertain path unless House GOP leaders can win support from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others in the upper chamber. House Commerce set a Tuesday reconciliation markup session, which will begin at 2 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

Wiley's David Gross, a former top State Department official on communications, said the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027 will be critical, as WRCs usually are. But it’s unclear where the meeting will be held, with China making a strong bid to serve as host, he said. Gross spoke during a Free State Foundation webcast posted Friday and hosted by former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.

An ATSC 3.0 tuner mandate and a set date for the switch to the new standard are necessary for TV broadcasting to survive and compete with streaming, said Sinclair, Scripps, Gray and others in comments filed in response to NAB’s 3.0 petition in docket 16-142 by Wednesday’s deadline. The Consumer Technology Association, public interest organizations and multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) groups disagreed, arguing that a mandatory transition would increase costs for consumers and MVPDs, all to provide broadcasters with a new revenue stream.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in an interview Thursday that “we are going to have [a restoration of the FCC’s lapsed] auction authority and a spectrum pipeline” in the coming budget reconciliation package, as talks appeared to be moving closer to a compromise headed into the weekend. Meanwhile, House GOP leaders are coalescing around a deal that would pair a 10-year renewal of the FCC’s auction mandate with a 450 MHz pipeline of airwaves that the commission can repurpose for 5G use, said several communications sector lobbyists who are closely monitoring negotiations.

The outlook on what happens next on the Digital Equity Act (DEA) is uncertain after President Donald Trump said his administration won’t fund the program. Congress approved DEA in 2021 as part of a $1 trillion infrastructure package under former President Joe Biden. In a Truth Social post late Thursday, Trump said he's canceling DEA, which industry officials predicted will lead to inevitable legal challenges and months if not years of uncertainty.

In Q1 earnings calls this week, TV broadcast executives emphasized their expectations of ownership deregulation, hinted at station deals and discussed a recent proposal by FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to cap network affiliation fees (see 2505020066). Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said on his company’s call that Simington’s proposal for a 30% cap on fees would likely find “very little traction” in Washington. On Capitol Hill, “there is very little interest in getting involved in the commerce between stations and networks.”

Ongoing declines in video subscribers at multichannel video programming distributors are boosting the odds that a major MVPD will drop video service, video analyst and consultant Dan Rayburn told us Thursday. It could become a consideration when MVPDs near or dip below the threshold of 2 million video subscribers, he said. Altice USA finished Q1 with 1.8 million video subscribers, down from 2.1 million in Q1 2024, it said Thursday as it announced its latest quarterly earnings. Verizon ended Q1 with 2.6 million Fios Video subscribers, down from 2.9 million a year earlier.

What the Trump administration's tariffs will mean for the communications sector remains murky (see 2504030056). On Thursday, the administration announced a deal with the U.K., the first of what it said will be multiple trade agreements.